Real Estate Developer Premier Assets Expands to Residential Market

Real Estate Developer Premier Assets Expands to Residential Market

Article excerpt

A real estate developer perhaps best known in Oklahoma City for
creating high-profile commercial and industrial developments in the
metro this week said he is expanding into the residential housing
market.

Richard I. Tanenbaum of Premier Assets will break ground this
week on his company's first residential development, the 272-home
Liberty Trails residential community at 6802 S. Sooner Road. The
development could be followed by other housing projects, possibly
near Yukon.

"This is the start of another whole division of our company,"
Tanenbaum said Friday at the construction site at Liberty Trails.
"We're not just doing this one project. We're going to be getting
into housing."

Premier Assets and Gardner Construction Co., the general
contractor for the housing development, plan to break ground on the
addition at 11:30 a.m. April 25.

Homes in the addition will range from 1,165 square feet to 1,760
square feet on lots of roughly 7,200 square feet. Houses will be
offered at five price points that will range from $86,500 to about
$110,000.

Tanenbaum said he plans to develop six additional along Sooner
Road as commercial property for businesses like restaurants or
convenience stores. Two new roads - SE 67th and 70th streets - will
extend eastward from Sooner Road to the 86-acre housing addition.

Land for the development is owned by an investor group called I-
240/Sooner Road Ltd., whose general partner is Premier Assets.

"We bought the property three years ago with the full intention
to do an industrial park to service Tinker and General Motors,"
Tanenbaum said. "Then we found out the property had mobile home
zoning, which turned out was a precious commodity."

Tanenbaum said he first looked into developing a mobile home park
on the property. He abandoned the idea after an economic analysis
showed that rental rates for the mobile homes at that site would
cost at least $50 a month more than the norm. Focus then shifted to
building single-family homes, each with brick exteriors.

The decision to build the single-family homes marks a significant
expansion of the business operations at Premier Assets. Among
Premier Assets' projects, the company developed industrial sites
such as North Gate Commerce Park, a 90-acre development at the
northeast corner of Interstate 35 and Hefner Road. Premier Assets
also developed North Britton Commerce Center, a 104-acre commercial
site at the southwest corner of I-35 and Britton Road.

Tanenbaum, who has not previously developed residential
properties, says he has surrounded himself with managers who have
experience in the housing market.

"We have people in our construction company who have built
thousands of homes," he said. …